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The Value of Sufi Inheritance and Its Use of Popular Culture in Light of Cyclical History, Gnosis, and Memory

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The Value of Sufi Inheritance and Its Use of Popular Culture in Light of Cyclical History, Gnosis, and Memory Cyclical history, gnosis, and memory: a study in the role and significance of Mystical Poetry as a medium of Popular Culture for Persian Sufism Milad Milani INTRODUCTION The ‘automatic’ sense in immediately identifying and relating to what is ‘right,’ ‘just,’ ‘true,’ or ‘real’ is just an example of how cunningly our inner-selves know ‘who we are,’ ‘what we are,’ ‘where we come from’ and ‘where we are going.’ Just as quickly as this ‘hyper’ sense identifies with the good, not a moment is wasted in informing us of the ‘wrong,’ the ‘bad,’ the ‘lie,’ or the ‘evil.’ This has prompted humankind to ask the question ‘What is in us that knows? How does it know? Most importantly, where does this knowledge come from?’ In one simple answer, this knowledge is within; it is our ‘real self’ that knows because we were meant to know. In mystical or esoteric language, it does not get any more confusing than this, and paradoxically, no simpler. Answers to life’s riddles and much more have been laid to claim by gnostic persons or groups for centuries on end. Their admission to this spiritual wealth is the result of a spiritual alchemy that transforms the common man of flesh to the ‘Man of Light,’ to adapt Henry Corbin’s title.1 In Iranian gnoseology, this theme is profoundly important and prevalent among its religious heritage, especially within Sufism. Sufism, which is, among other inheritors of ‘gnosis,’ a contemporary face of today’s spirituality, finds an ongoing relevance in the heart of the second millennium through not only the great lyrical poets of Persia but also through its obvious links with the various spiritual or gnostic contents or themes as manifested in popular film. Whether it be the historical realism of Gladiator and Braveheart in promoting ‘nobility’ and ‘chivalry’ or traditional tales and mythology in King Arthur and Crouching Tiger: Hidden Dragon: conveying ‘honour’ and ‘virtue,’ there is a special kind of spiritual phenomenon that continually speaks through popular culture. Science fiction 1 Henry Corbin: Man of Light in Iranian Sufism, New York, 1978. Buddha of Suburbia blockbusters with their dazzling imagery and imagination, like The Matrix, The Lord of The Rings trilogy and the Star Wars saga, are comparable, in style, to the popular Sufi literature of the tenth to thirteenth centuries and serve much the same purpose, not only for their entertainment value but also for their praised esoteric content. Their popularisation generally displays the (human) hunger for spiritual awakening and a general and predominant interest or shift towards the ‘gnostico-religious’ arena. Specific spiritual themes come to the fore in such films where, for instance, detailed attention has been paid to the subtle relationship between master and apprentice; the role of the ‘seeker’ amidst the populace, the layout of cosmogony; cosmology; eschatology, soteriology and many other areas of relational concern. What these films show, on a popular plane, is on one level the return to and rethinking of the perennial issues of good and evil, right and wrong, truth and untruth, justice and injustice and, on another level, the individual’s private search for solace and personal spirituality. Similar to Persian Sufi literature, these films bring to life the Classics and Antiquity in an almost modern renaissance of spiritual or inner- personal quest to recapture the meaning and value of such age-old virtues for and within a contemporary setting. The ‘automatic’ or ‘hyper’ sense, in an unconscious fashion, is an indication of the inherited wealth of knowledge accumulated from the dawn of the human species, and not a mere reduction of the ideological conventionalism prevalent in popular film. One of the reasons for Sufism’s great success and continuation, despite the fact that it is not a proselytising tradition, lies in its incorporation of poesis and its subsequent literary success on a popular cultural level. I would like, therefore, to present here a brief and introductory journey through both the hidden and popular levels of Sufi understanding as related to the literary material of three specific classical Persian poets. REFLECTIONS ON POPULAR RELIGIOSITY AND THE QUESTION OF ITS DIRECTION Whether it be the high spirited and modernised Pentecostal evangelism of Pastor Brian Houston’s Hillsong Church or the presence of Dhammakaya and Mandaean energies in Sydney, what is noticeable is a shift in focus that is generally directing the Australian population toward a more intimate relationship with the 224 The Value of Sufi Inheritance ‘mystico-spiritual’ or ‘esoterico-gnostic’ world on the quest for redefining and reinventing its own spirituality. Theologically, the shift in direction is naturally one which steadily moves away from the rigid interpretation of transcendence and exclusivity of the divine to a more holistic, inclusive, inner and more personal representation. Where each individual seeks to re-interpret ‘what it means for them’ to be ‘religious’ or to belong to a ‘religious group,’ the effect of this act is still a positive one for religious history and religious traditions as a whole. ‘Religion’ itself is given further impetus to carry on its ‘essential’ legacy in the socio-cultural psyche of contemporary community. The notion of the divine is then fast becoming the subject of an ‘internal’ discourse and personal identification rather than the ‘external’ entity of a higher metaphysical imaging. This internal shift yearns to tell more about the place and importance of the ‘human.’ This may in one sense seem, or be taken as, an indication that the notion of ‘God’ is being further pushed from our consciousness as we ground ourselves in gnostic themes, but we must at the same time understand that those traditions which are deeply immersed in gnostic thinking all profess to an idea of divinity which is hidden behind complex barriers of esoteric encoding. Apparent anthropomorphic currents (like the Buddhist and Sufi traditions) have become quickly popularised in the forms of neo-Buddhist and neo- Sufi practices that accommodate the [post]modern person; allowing them to tap into the rich cultural heritage and literature of such age- old traditions but in a more relaxed, interpersonal, and less intense religious manner. To hone in on the thought and spirituality of Buddhist and Islamic traditions, the two have, from the first centuries of Islam, had close encounters in the regions today known as Afghanistan and Pakistan. In fact prior to this, Buddhism’s spread into China before the rise of Islam was through the eastern regions of the Persian Empire and one of the first harbingers of the Buddhist message into China was called in Chinese ‘The Persian.’2 Despite the difference in spiritual expressions of theistic and non- theistic attitudes of Islamic and Buddhist spiritualities, the priority that both place upon the ‘human being’ and the ‘human condition’ remains a trademark of prolific similarity between the two. The esoteric 2 S H Nasr: ‘Reply to Kenneth Inada’ in L E Hahn, R E Auxier and L W Stone, Junior, editors, The Philosophy of Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Chicago, 2001, 326. 225 Buddha of Suburbia expressions of their thought mutually reveal a profound journey and transformation that is guided by the senses and the intuition (defined through the categories of ‘love’ and ‘gnosis’) and strict ascetic practices. Interest in such expressions as found within contemporary popular film and literature in the past or recent years does not indicate a pre-occupation with the abandonment of divinity, or divine elements (as it may seem), but instead reveals an interest and exploration into the esoteric facet of religious and spiritual understanding. Rather than moving away from the divine, this highlights the effort to search for its expression through other channels that ‘dare to make sense to the seeker.’ Traditionally, the prevalent alternate channel has always been understood to be ‘the individual;’ beginning always with the recognition of the value of the person as an agent of spiritual quality, through which and only after this realisation, would any metaphysical or metamorphic prospect follow. This has been none other than the individual and the individual’s personal quest for meaning: coming to understand one’s self in the true sense, and subsequently the purpose of one’s existence in relation to the other. This archaic method of self- knowledge famously known in the Greek and Latin tradition of ‘know thyself,’ is the very epistemological method incorporated by the ‘gnostic’ shift. This is important in that we are made aware (through such films as mentioned above) of the power of the individual and the divine or transcendental gift that is placed within each and every soul. There is no surprise that films concern themselves less explicitly with the divine and depict more overtly the arduous journey of growth, change and empowerment of the individual figure (repeatedly hinting at notions of ‘rebirth’ and ‘liberation’ in the secret yearning for the powerful truths of Buddhist and Sufi experiences of ‘annihilation’ and ‘subsistence.’) Misconception of the complex and intimate teachings of esoteric schools of the East has lead to many atheistic impressions of its religious thinking. More often, such inadequate reflection had not accounted for the deeper subtleties of esoteric agenda and exegesis at play. After all, how could it have, as esoteric exegesis of religious material predominantly remains highly initiatory in nature and kept well within the subterranean levels of each culture’s spirituality? Nevertheless, it has to be mentioned that esoteric knowledge can also have its unorthodox expressions through the production of art, film and literature in contemporary society, 226 The Value of Sufi Inheritance reflecting and drawing on the ‘formal’ and ‘traditional’ sources of this teaching. It is indeed through this medium of film and literature that secular interests in the classical motives of arcane traditions such as Buddhism or Sufism have flourished.
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